This is the largest contract in the agricultural sector in the history of independent Ukraine - President about the agreement between Mriya Farming PLC and SALIC

12 September 2018 - 13:23

President Petro Poroshenko considers the signing of a sales agreement between Mriya Farming PLC and Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company with regard to the sale of Mriya Holding Cyprus Limited and Mriya Trading Cyprus Ltd. an evidence of a qualitative change in the investment climate in our state, investors’ confidence restoration and their willingness to invest in Ukraine.

"SALIC is the property of Saudi Arabia's sovereign fund, and today it is one of the largest investors in agricultural business all over the world. And the decision to come to Ukraine is a vivid demonstration that Ukraine is ready to take such investors today and created all the necessary conditions for that," the Head of State stressed during the signing of the agreement between Mriya Farming PLC and SALIC, which took place in the Presidential Administration.

Petro Poroshenko calls it important that the interest of our Arab partners, which was certified during the President’s visit to Saudi Arabia, and the plans of the world's largest investors to invest in Ukraine are being realized in concrete steps today.

“This is the largest contract, the largest purchase in the agricultural sector in the history of independent Ukraine. Today, this is the first significant investment of the sovereign fund of Saudi Arabia and the sovereign fund of all the countries of the world in the Ukrainian assets,” the President emphasized.

“Today, this is the first investment of such a scale since the beginning of the Russian aggression in 2014, which means the restoration of investors’ confidence in Ukraine and its main sectors of economy,” the Head of State noted.

Petro Poroshenko drew attention to the fact that this contract does not mean the purchase of Ukrainian land. "This means buying Ukrainian assets, raising the level of investment in the Ukrainian agrarian sector, raising the level of technologies that will help increase yield, increase exports, increase foreign exchange earnings, create well-paid new jobs," the President stated.

According to him, following the negotiations with the investors, the parties agreed that the signing of the agreement is only the beginning of an "extremely important process" and the volume of investment in Ukraine will be further increased, including from SALIC and the sovereign fund.

"It is very important that as a result of this contract, as a result of what is happening today, we restart the activities of an extremely large parent company, restore its solvency, restore investors’ confidence. This is a vivid example of effective cooperation between the Ukrainian President, Government, National Bank of Ukraine, Investment Council under the President of Ukraine," Petro Poroshenko stressed.

The Head of State also outlined the important events that took place in the Ukrainian economy last month. In particular, $ 200 million from Bayer's investment in a seed plant, $ 450 million from NBT of Norway, which invested in renewable energy.

Also, the President announced the opening of the processing industry in Mykolaiv region next week, recalled the recent opening of the H&M store, the launch of the Ryanair flights from Ukrainian airports. Petro Poroshenko also noted that General Electric's first locomotive had arrived the day before, and the launch of the IKEA project in Ukraine had taken place in the morning.

"These are the events of this month only, it's the pace of Ukraine's development and the results of the implementation of reforms," the President said.

According to the Head of State, the process was launched last year, and today the document is being signed.

Managing Director of SALIC Khaled Al-Aboodi emphasized that it was not the first investment in Ukraine, however such a scale is unprecedented. “We are determined to continue our activities in the future, and this agreement with the company "Mriya" is the restoration of the agroholding’s activity. We are determined to increase the efficiency of production... And this is not our last investment in Ukraine. We are considering investing in other sectors,” he stressed.

The Managing Director of SALIC is hopeful that other investors from Saudi Arabia will be interested in Ukraine.